{"id":332,"date":"2018-01-14T10:43:15","date_gmt":"2018-01-14T16:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/?p=332"},"modified":"2018-01-14T20:38:03","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T02:38:03","slug":"food-as-a-love-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/?p=332","title":{"rendered":"Food as a Love Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m a foodie. I love shopping for food, preparing food, serving food. It\u2019s creative, it\u2019s calming. And on a day when I need to feel like I have closure on something, ANYTHING<\/em>, building a fantastic meal from start to finish can often set my mind at ease.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m somewhat confident that when Dr. Gary Chapman was writing his famous \u201c5 Love Languages\u201d book, it was just a small oversight that #6, Food, was left off the list.<\/p>\n

But maybe I\u2019m wrong. Maybe food is the one thing that ties all of the love languages together.<\/p>\n

Food is an Act of Service.<\/strong> We moved a lot when I was growing up and we attended a Methodist Church, a Church of God, and several other denominations. I graduated from a Baptist College and now attend an Anglican church. One strong theme that is consistent with each church scenario is that when someone is sick, you bring them a casserole. When someone passes away, you bring their family a casserole. When a baby is born, you gift them a casserole. If someone is in the hospital, you take some food to the people in the waiting room.<\/p>\n

Ok, so maybe not necessarily a casserole, but you provide something to give sustenance. You give a meal that nourishes. You take away the pressure of the obligation to cook. You provide for their body and soul, and honestly, is there any better comfort food than a casserole?<\/p>\n

Food a Gift that can be Given<\/strong>. During the holidays, one of my favorite things to give (and receive) is something created in the kitchen. Bread, cookie mix, spice combinations \u2013 I love all of it. Over the years I\u2019ve given so much homemade Kahlua and Irish Cream that some friends just assume that they will receive this gift annually (and have expressed displeasure when I haven\u2019t provided their yearly bottle of sweet coffee liquor!) I could give them the recipe, but that\u2019s not the point. There\u2019s just something sacred about a gift that wasn\u2019t bought at a store.<\/p>\n

Food with friends is the best Quality Time<\/strong>. The majority of deep conversations in my life have come over a meal\u2026without technology present. There\u2019s just something about sitting around the table, having dinner with someone. No TV. No phone. Just time to sit and share about the life, understand each other\u2019s thoughts, reconnect and restore a relationship. This was a huge deal growing up. Our family connected at least once, every day, simply sharing dinner. I\u2019m so thankful this was a priority for my parents.<\/p>\n

Food, our course, meets our physical needs, but the conversation meets my need to connect. I need people. Not to over-spiritualize this but the Bible is big on the theme that Christians need other Christians. And Jesus spent a lot of time eating with other people or providing incredible amounts of bread and fish to those who came seeking spiritual nourishment. When we eat together we can better know how to support each other.<\/p>\n

Eating together is awesome. It\u2019s even better when the food was prepared with love by someone who cares about you. And I need to be more diligent about adding dinner conversations in my weekly schedule.<\/p>\n

Now — is it a stretch to say that Physical Touch and Words of Affirmation are included in this list?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re cooking for someone else, the chef\u2019s Physical Touch<\/strong> is just a part of the process. You go and pick out the ingredients at the store. You use your hands to prep and assemble the meal. Dough that has to be kneaded. Salt is pinched. Vegetables are peeled and chopped. Our touch is woven throughout what we create.<\/p>\n

\u2026and maybe Words of Affirmation<\/strong> are more directed at the soul of the cook. When someone says \u201cthank you\u201d or simply audibly shows their enjoyment of the food I created, it brings me great joy. It\u2019s not a necessity of course, and I think most people who like to cook don\u2019t do it for the recognition\u2026but hearing that someone is grateful to experience my culinary creation.<\/p>\n

So today, I\u2019ll remember all of the love languages as I head to the store. Maybe one of my friends may get a surprise casserole left on their doorstep.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(This blog was written as part of the #my500words writing challenge. Apologies for typos and grammar errors!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a foodie. I love shopping for food, preparing food, serving food. It\u2019s creative, it\u2019s calming. And on a day when I need to feel like I have closure on something, ANYTHING, building a fantastic meal from start to finish can often set my mind at ease. I\u2019m somewhat confident that when Dr. Gary Chapman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[45,3,46,52],"tags":[404,405,407,408,406,402,403,384],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-health","category-joy","category-thoughts","tag-5-love-languages","tag-500-word-writing-challenge","tag-baking","tag-chef","tag-cooking","tag-food","tag-foodie","tag-my500words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8fdt8-5m","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wandertruenorth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Love-language-food.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wandertruenorth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}